Culture
Does Ebola Spread Faster in Cities?
It depends on the city's density, urban planning, and health care infrastructure.
Doctors are currently treating someone with "Ebola-Like symptoms" at Howard University Hospital. And now, there are two people with similar symptoms in a hospital in Maryland. They may or may not be the second, third, and fourth instances of Ebola in America, after the first confirmed case in Dallas.
The virus is scary—yes—but it's really not all that contagious, explains NPR's Michaeleen Doucleff. Ebola has a low "R0" or "reproduction nought," which is the average number of people one sick person will infect. The Ebola virus is at 2 on that scale, the same as Hepatitis C. Measles, one of the most contagious viruses, sits at 18—the other end of that scale.